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May 31, 2006 | Comments: (0)
European Grids More Advanced, but Similar Problems as US
Yesterday I commented on Derrick Harris' theory as to why European grid users are more advanced than their North American counterparts. As Derrick alludes, to it really comes down to cultural issues, and as far back as I've been doing GlobusWORLD surveys, cultural issues are one of the biggest barriers to grid adoption.
In the US the car is king. We all have our own little silo-ed modes of transportation. Our roads are many and do a fine job of getting us around our own country using a set of standards that we are all familiar with. Although our roads do connect to bordering countries and our cars work on those roads, there are differences in standards of maintenance, units of measurement and units of currency for tolls.
My first trip to Europe I was fascinated by the interconnecting mesh of rail lines that allowed one to travel between and within the various countries. Rail lines within different countries have different ownership, but one can use them all with a single type of ticket. Decentralized cooperative systems at their best both in the shared nature of many passengers in a rail car and the network on which those cars travel.
I've used the roads with no cars" analogy to describe grids in the US and the lack of real useable applications available. The same concept applies to Europe. Elaborate rail infrastructures don't really mean a whole lot if there are no trains traveling on them ...
Posted by Greg Nawrocki on May 31, 2006 07:14 AM
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